KPMG Enterprise panel: Innovative technology for businesses with leading experts Dr Adam Beaumont, aql, Dave Coplin, Microsoft UK and Ian Beaumont, KPMG UK

Dr Adam Beaumont, aql CEO and founder, Dave Coplin, Chief Envisioning Officer at Microsoft UK and Ian Beaumont, Head of KPMG enterprise in Yorkshire attended the KPMG enterprise panel on Tuesday 15th of September to discuss how Yorkshire businesses can make better use of innovative technology.

Dr Adam Beaumont gave the audience insight on Cloud computing and data hosting: “Cloud is something that if you don’t do now it’s something that you will be doing. As you move all of your equipment out of a data centre, you’ll be moving it into a cloud. You’ll be moving it into Amazon, into Microsoft, or to Google or somebody else.” He also explained why Leeds is a good place to do business from a network and datacentre infrastructure perspective: “This region is blessed with good connectivity. In the UK there’s three internet exchanges, these are the points where networks meet each other and there’s two of them in London. The other one is actually in Leeds. As we see more adoption of smart technology, more out-sourcing, all of this technology is going to end up in the Cloud”.

Mr Ian Beaumont emphasised the impact that digital innovation can have on more traditional sectors, such as manufacturing, and also the importance for those industries to adopt new technologies. Mr Coplin highlighted the fact that SMEs must keep focus on outcomes productivity gains that the new digital solutions can bring and not only on business processes.